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@gleiten vtatra atrnt @frn JAMES M. BROWN, OF BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS. LetterskPatent No. 66,294, dated July 2, 1867,

IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CLEANING AND SOFTENINGSEEP-SKIN S.

-TO ALL PERSONS TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME:

Be it known thatI, JAMES M. BROWN, ofoston, in the county of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts,

have made a new and useful Inventionv having reference'tito'Cleansing and softening Sheep-Skins, as well as to` in the following specification and represented in the accompanying-drawings, which denotes the machine or improved fulling-mill employed by me in the treatment of the skins. 'Of such drawings- Figure 1 is a top view, and Figure 2 a. verticalsection of such falling-mill. A The ordinary process of preparing wool and skins for the market, that is to say, native sheep-skins, may be thus described: First, they are'put intoa vat of water to soak from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. They are next washed by shaking them backand forth in the water with a long hook, which is a laborious and slow removing bnrs or other like matters therefrom; and I dohereby-declare such invention to b e fully described y process, and wastes a great'amount of the wool, which is torn off by the hook. and floats away. Next, the skins are packed upon aframe to drain a'nd soften, which takes from two to six days according to the weather. Next, they. are'hung upon tenter-hooksto sweat,` which lrequires from Athree to ten days, according to the weather.

' i i of that near the edges of the skins, which often gets dry on account of not being suiciently soft when hung upon the hooks. This wool has to be sheared from these dry edges, which is a waste of time and wool. After vthe wool may have been taken from the skin it is dried and is then ready for themarket. These hard and dry stock when tanned. Foreign skins are very hard, dry, and contain more `or less burs, consequently they need more time to soak and Amore labor to wash them. To remove the burs by hard washing is an impossibility; besides, the skins have to be put througha process called breaking," which is intended to soften them. This breaking spoils'or injures a great many skinsl by tearing them, especially when they mayhave large burs in the wool. To give an idea of how many skins are spoiled by breaking, I wouldrstate that in alot of sixteen thousand skins that were worked by the above-described means last spring one thousand were spoiled bythe breaking The foreign skins are worked in the same manner as native'skins, with the exception of the breaking, which is done before the washing. I

In treating the. skins by my process, I put them in the reservoir-A eti a falling-mill, whose beaters or stocks are represented atiB and B. There-js a hole, O, through the bottom of the reservoir, and underneath the said reservoir is a screen, I), or frame covered with woven wire. The beaters have arms, E E, extending down from them and being jointed to connecting-rods F F applied to bell-cranks G G of a shaft, I-I. When such shaft is revolved a reciprocating vibratory motion will beimparted to the beaters. After the reservoir or trough of the mill may have been charged with the skins and the beaters set in movement, water should beV allowed to run `into it upon the skins andout of it by the'hole C, such water falling on and passing throucrh the wire screen D.

v i In a short period of time the skins will be beaten, softened, and cleaned, the waste wool being carried olf by the water and left on the screen, from which it may be readily removed. In regard to the employment of the fulling-mill-d can say that with one-.third less soaking of the skins it will wash the wool much better than it can be washed by hand, and will bur the wool at the same time, and it will also break and soften the skins, so that there will be a very few, if any, dry parts to be sheared from them after the sweating process may have been concluded. It also saves every-particle of wool and never tears a skin.

I would also statethat thereis a greatamount of ne wool-which has to be assorted into the coarse grades of wool on account of its being dirty. This is a very important item, although it may not appear so to one not experienced in the wool business; but I consider it a great advantage to have the wool cleaned, so that veveryrlock can be put in its proper place. With a fulling-mill that will hold fifty skins one man can cleanse fifteen hundred skins perday, which, to say thc least, would be work enough fo`r ten men by the ordinary 'mode of operation. l

' What I claim, therefore, as my invention, is-

My above-described process of treating skins, such being by a falling-mill and water, and by collecting the vaste wool on a screen, or its equivalent, as set forth.

I also claim the combination and arrangement of the screen with the falling-mill, having a discharging-hole in its reservoir, as set forth.

' JAMES M. BROWN.

Witnesses: v

R. I-I` EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

